


Late Night Shift

by LightRedFox



Category: Splatoon
Genre: F/M, Mild Swearing, Salmon Run, and the equivalent of saying Jesus as one, yes Hisashi is a swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:33:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28473978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightRedFox/pseuds/LightRedFox
Summary: Double Egg and Omega do a Grizzco shift in the middle of the night, and Double clearly doesn’t know what he’s doing.
Relationships: Double Egg/Omega (Splatoon)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	Late Night Shift

**Author's Note:**

> Happy 2021! Have doublemega as a treat.

The entire Square was devoid of all life, the residents of Inkopolis having retired for the day hours prior. The bright neon lights of Deca Tower, combined with the flashing electronic billboards, lit up the starry night sky with all types of colors. In this eery quiet, a pair of inklings made their way through the empty streets, a certain destination in mind.

Solid metal shutters blocked the entrances to the surrounding shops, the only exception being the clothes store. The faint sound of cheery music playing through the speakers could be heard from the outside as Jelfonzo set up more clothes on display, seemingly unaffected by the lack of customers and sunlight. Jellyfish were known for almost never taking hours off, and the shop owner was no exception. He waved at the passing inklings in greeting, and one of them waved back, the other ignoring him and going ahead of their companion to the area left of the tower.

Finally, the pair arrived in front of a folding gate, brown rust slowly eating at the metal over the passage of time. The numerous diamond shapes formed by the structure gave no exposure to the inside due to it being pitch black, and a metal shutter blocked the window of the counter to the left, making it so that nothing could be seen through there either.

“It’s closed.” One of the inklings spoke, yawning a bit and stretching his arms up in the air.

The other inkling simply took out her phone, the screen lighting up to display the time. 1:59am.

“It’s about to open.”

On cue, the time on the phone changed to 2am, followed by the sound of a lightswitch being flicked on. The interior of the establishment was suddenly flooded with lights, the inklings flinching a bit from the sudden brightness. Another sound was heard, and this time the metal doors blocking the entrance were pulled to the side by an unknown force. Metal creaked as the doors folded upon itself, and after it had been completely folded up, a small jingle began to play, soft chimes coming from the inside enticing people to go in. The inklings looked inside cautiously, then to each other. They nodded their heads and stepped inside Grizzco.

As expected, there was no one else there at first glance; there seemed to be no signs of life at that unholy hour. They were surrounded by various boxes filled with manuals, equipment, and other things used in salmon run. The only thing that looked out of place was a wood carved statue of a bear holding a fish in its mouth, one of the faulty lights above it flickering on and off.

“Right on time, kiddos.” A static-like voice spoke as something inside the bear statue crackled to life, making the boy jump at the sudden voice.

“Hisashi, that thing can talk?” He walked up to the statue and lifted it up, inspecting the bottom closely for wherever the voice was coming from.

“Hands off, kid. This is a one of a kind statue.”

“Put it down, Double.” The girl placed her hands on his, carefully setting the statue back onto the counter.

“I’m guessing you’re new here. Not like you to bring a friend, Omega.”

“S’cuse you, I went past friend status a long time ago.” Double Egg cocked an eyebrow at the statue.

“What are you, anyway?”

“The owner of this fine company, and your job trainer. You’d do well to remember that.”

“Excuse his attitude, Mr. Grizz.” Omega jerked a thumb towards the taller inkling.

“It’s his first time here. I hope you don’t mind that I brought him along.”

“Well, I certainly won’t mind if you’ll actually work some shifts tonight instead of just loafing around and listening to the music. More workers are always good for the business, though you came a tad bit early. You might have to wait a while to form a whole crew.”

“Oh, no need to get more people.” Omega responded. “Just the two of us is already enough.”

The voice on the other end paused for a few seconds, seemingly in thought, before the static crackle returned.

“The spawning grounds are especially dangerous at night. I won’t stop you, but I hope you know exactly what you’re getting into.”

“Aren’t we just supposed to like, splat a bunch of fish or something?” Double yawned once again, seemingly bored.

“That doesn’t sound too hard for us to do.”

“...You two better sign those non-liability contracts.”

xxx

A few minutes later, they were on a fairly small boat speeding towards salmonid spawning grounds. It was a seemingly standard fishing vessel, with some nets and lifesavers on the side. Omega and Double stood on the starboard, dressed up in mandatory worker’s outfits. Droplets of sea water from the sprays of the engine splashed against them, the slightly bigger ones mildly stinging their skin. Odd looking weapons were placed messily against the walls, some clattering to the dirty floor due to the rocking of the boat.

“I’ll give you some of my special weapons since it’s just the two of you.” Mr. Grizz spoke through the speaker on the boat, his voice barely heard against the crashing of the small waves against the boat’s exterior.

“They should help you survive the night, but it’ll take more than good weapons to drive the salmonids back. You two better not end up dead, it’ll be hell for me to explain to the sponsors.”

“Don’t plan on it.” Double grunted in response, though he was doubtful Mr. Grizz heard it over the loud sounds of the engine and waves.

“We’ll arrive in just a moment, you’ll know we’re there when the boat stops.” The boat driver, a grey anglerfish, spoke gruffly.

The small luminescent esca of the driver bobbed up and down in rhythm with the boat’s movements, the faint yellow glow it gave off joining the few floor lights on both sides of the deck in providing sight in the dark abyss. It was an eerie feeling, wind blowing through their tentacles as the boat moved forward, cutting through the calm waves just to be greeted with more and more darkness on the other side.

Omega stared back at where they had departed from, hands gripping the side of the boat and eyes on the distant lights of Inkopolis. Double joined her, leaning his arms against the side and cocking his head to look at the view. It was a wonder how he could still see anything in the dark, considering he refused to take off his signature shades.

“It’s nice to see Inkopolis from out here.” She broke the silence, eyes completely focused on the far away city.

“Would’ve been nicer to see while the sun was out.” He remarked.

“We could’ve come out here earlier; what’s so special about working at night?”

“The music the salmonids play, I wanted to hear it in person.”

“Oh yeah, you always did like that sort of music. Don’t they play those tunes all the time though?”

“The music they play at night is different from what they play in the daytime.”

“Megs, no offense, but all their songs sound the same.”

Omega puffed her cheeks out in slight annoyance at the remark, turning her head to face him.

“You just can’t appreciate good music.”

“Suuuuuure.” 

“Besides, that’s not the only reason. The salmonids also tend to be more active at night. More salmonids mean more golden eggs,” She jabbed at his chest with a finger. “and more golden eggs mean a higher paycheck, which I’m sure you’re more interested in.”

“You’re not wrong there. Could’ve mentioned the money first, now I have a reason to actually try.”

“Don’t be so cocky, it’s easy to get overwhelmed if you’re not careful.”

“Says the one who decided that one extra teammate was enough.”

“It’s not like I had a lot of options.” She looked downwards and tucked a tentacle behind her ear.

“I don’t like working with strangers, I can’t trust them. Red doesn’t like fighting the salmons, and Vin only likes doing it when he knows how to use the weapons. So….you’re the only one I could think of. I know I can rely on you.”

“Aww, glad you think so highly of me.” He gave her one of his signature shit eating grins.

“Don’t worry babe, I’ll protect ya from those creepy salmons.”

She rolled her eyes in response, the slight flush forming on her cheeks thankfully covered up by the darkness. They spent the rest of the ride in silence, watching as the lights from Inkopolis got farther and farther, and listening as the hum of the engine got quieter and quieter. The boat slowed down, and it eventually came to a standstill a few meters away from a seemingly abandoned outpost, leaving only the gentle waves to fill in the silence.

“This is it.” Omega tugged Double’s hand, grabbing a long weapon from the floor.

“Grab a weapon and let’s go.”

“Alright, alright.” He couldn’t spot any dualies, so he picked up the nearest cool looking, shiny weapon.

“Get to work.” The speaker crackled to life one more time before the two light blue inklings super jumped to the middle of the area.

They landed perfectly, Double tightly gripping the unique blaster he had been loaned while Omega began to paint the ground with the modified charger in her hands. Double looked at his new surroundings curiously. At first glance, it seemed like they were in a boxed out area. High walls surrounded them, and the gateways revealed different ‘docks’ of sorts in three directions. A metal hatch stood shiny and pristine in the middle of the dark floor, making it obvious that it wasn’t part of the area originally.

“Start turfing, it’ll help us later on.” Omega spoke up.

He followed her advice, shooting some ink at his feet, the blue color a direct contrast to the dirty and molding grey concrete. The water level quickly declined, more land revealing itself, much to Double’s surprise. They ventured out together towards the shoreline, muddy ground quickly replacing concrete. They covered the area around another metal hatch in ink quickly thanks to the almost instant shots of the blaster and charger.

“Geez, what the hell is this thing?” Double looked down at the weapon in his hands in awe, blast after blast popping out of it like it was nothing. “I’ve never seen a weapon shoot this fast, it’s even faster than a Clash Blaster!”

“They’re weapons I modified myself.” Double jumped as Mr. Grizz’s voice suddenly spoke, most likely through the small communication device that came with their uniforms. Must be one of those radios that only activate when they pick up voices speaking.

“I rarely bring them out, so consider this my way of bringing you good luck. And complying to sufficient workplace safety.”

A few giant ink cannons popped up from the ground near them, followed by a giant egg basket emerging from the metal slot in front of them. Immediately after, the sound of a horn blared loudly, signalling the start of the first wave. It was followed by ominous music playing from the distance, and Double noticed Omega humming along to it.

“A bunch of cohocks are gathering at the shoreline. Use the cannons to your advantage.”

Omega sped towards the water, where giant salmonids were emerging, shooting a straight line of ink and swimming towards the increasing number of cohocks. Double immediately headed to one of the cannons, submerging himself into it and firing an experimental shot towards an approaching group of cohocks. It exploded in front of Omega, numerous orange power eggs falling from the splatted salmonids.

“Holy shit, this thing is awesome!”

“At least you know how to use it.” She sighed, firing a few charged shots of her own to splat some cohocks.

A few more missiles were fired from the cannon, splatting cohock after cohock in mere seconds. Another horn blared as metal glinted in the murky water, and a Steelhead soon emerged from the sea, heading straight towards Omega.

“Double, aim for its head!” She yelled, too occupied with splatting cohocks that were trying to surround her to deal with the Steelhead herself.

“Got it!” He yelled back, firing a shot at the Steelhead. Unfortunately, all it did was hit it’s face too early, only succeeding in making it angrier.

“I meant the bomb on top of its head!” Omega groaned as her weapon clicked uselessly at the lack of ink, forcing her to retreat back to the basket to avoid the incoming cohocks.

“Well you should’ve specified that earlier!” He tried to fire another missile, but nothing came out of the cannon except pathetic droplets.

“Dangit, out of ink.” Double stepped out of the cannon to refill, only to notice a glowing red dot right below him.

“What the-”

He jumped out of the way just in time, the Maws nearly tearing him apart with its huge jaws.

“What the fuck is that?!”

He ran away from the salmon boss uselessly, the blinking red light following him and threatening to pop up again. Double stumbled for just a moment, and that was enough time for the Maws to prepare another bite. He jumped out of the way once again, and at the same time, a splat bomb landed directly on top of the dot. The Maws re-emerged and snapped its jaws again, but this time, it exploded from the bomb’s blast, and three golden eggs were left where it had once been.

“Booyah!” Double breathed heavily as Omega swam up to the eggs.

“Booyah to you too, now help me bring these to the net.” She picked one up and swam to the basket, quickly but carefully placing it inside. Double followed with the other two eggs, tossing them into the basket with a lot less care.

“If we get that Steelhead, we should be able to reach the quota for this wave.” Omega pointed at the first giant salmon boss to show up, about to throw one of its giant bombs from its head.

“Alright then, let me handle it!”

“Double, wait-“

He swam forward before Omega could finish, and as expected, his path was immediately cut off by the Steelhead’s bomb landing in front of him, glowing a bright green and giving off a deadly hum that was getting louder by the second.

“Oh fuck, back back back back BACK-”

BOOM!

Omega could only give a frustrated sigh as he got splatted, the inkling’s ghost flying up in the air. He wouldn’t be able to be rescued from the lifesaver for a while, so she swam over to the nearest cannon and took aim towards the Steelhead, who was preparing to lob another bomb at her.

The Steelhead glared at her angrily, the bomb at the top of its head swelling quickly. When it looked as if it was about to burst, she fired two missiles at it, succeeding in splatting the giant Steelhead as well as several cohocks nearby due to the resulting explosion of ink.

She shot one last missile towards the lifesaver jumping up and down near the eggs before swimming off in the same direction, popping up from the ink just as the missile exploded and Double popped up as well, gasping and looking around in a panic.

“Try not to die next time.” She patted his shoulder before grabbing an egg and swimming to the basket. Double muttered a small embarrassed thank you and carried the last two eggs to the basket, placing them inside a bit more carefully this time.

“Well, we got enough eggs, now what?”

The sound of something whirring made his ears twitch, and a split second later he jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding a sudden line of ink cutting straight through the basket.

A Stinger lay perched on its small tower of pots and pans, staring down at the two inklings menacingly as more cohocks emerged from the waters near it.

The wave wasn’t over yet.

xxx 

Double panted heavily, tired body leaning against the metal basket now filled to the brim with golden eggs. His clothes were covered in dark green salmonid ink, the sickly color dripping off of his weapon and onto the ground. Omega, on the other hand, was barely dirty, as if she didn’t just murder numerous salmonids in cold blood.

“Ughhhh, that was almost more tiring than that training session Vin made us do with only sub weapons. Can we go back to the boat now?”

“You thought that was all?” Mr. Grizz spoke up, some sense of humor in his tone.

“You’re in for a whole lot more, kid. The water is rising; get back to the main basket and prepare yourselves for the next wave.”

“You’ve got to be squidding me.” Double grumbled, but still obeyed, super jumping with Omega back to where they had originally started in the center of the map.

“I can’t believe you do this for fun.” He spoke as they landed, shaking off excess ink.

“You get used to it.” Omega shrugged lightly in response, firing a few shots of ink to cover parts of the ground she had missed previously.

“Besides, you were the one who wanted to know more about me and my interests.”

“I expected a night out at a rave or something, not this!”

Despite his complaints, Double followed suit and fired more blasts, inking the entire area within the walls as the water quickly rose, submerging the ground they had been standing on just moments before. Around the same time, a swarm of glowing insects buzzed around a light nearby, suddenly dropping down near Double and flying wildly around his face.

“Ugh, stupid bugs.” He tried to smack some away with his free hand with no luck, the bugs continuing to annoy him as another horn blared, and the distant music continued to play.

“Those are glowflies.” She muttered, staring at Double’s futile attempts to smack them away before noticing a swarm of fast approaching chums headed straight towards him.

“Double, stay close to me!” Omega called out, splatting a straight line of chums with a few shots, only for them to quickly be replaced with even more chums. “They’re all gonna go after you!”

“Then why the shell would I bring them to you?! I’m getting the fuck away from them!” He faced the direction opposite of Omega and began to hightail it out of there, all the salmonids right on his tail.

“Double—don’t go onto the grates, you won’t be able to outrun them!”

“I can try!” He screamed back, shooting any salmonids that were getting too close for comfort.

It worked well enough for the regular chums, probably thanks to the run speed up he had on his shades, but the goldies were stronger and more persistent. Double jumped, dodged, and even rolled away from their attacks, but eventually he ran out of ink. Without any inked ground nearby to make an escape, two goldies got the jump on the poor inkling and smacked him with their frying pans at the same time, splatting him and sending the glowflies off to find another person to bug.

Omega gave an aggravated sigh as the glowflies landed on her, knowing that the salmonids would begin to swarm her now that she was the victim of the bug’s curse. With no better plan in mind, she activated her special; a large ink tank that could propel her upwards, equipped with an equally large gun. The inkjet allowed her to hover a safe distance away above the crazed salmon and towards the grates, where she could help Double….again.

She aimed a few shots towards the chums and goldies, both types of salmon exploding and leaving behind eggs, but her main goal was the lifesaver than was jumping up and down once more on the grids, yelling for help. She took aim, and with the last second left for her special, sent a large blast towards the life saver, Double gasping for air as he popped out of it.

“Cod that felt weird.”

He was about to send a booyah towards Omega before a swarm of glowflies suddenly surrounded him again, the salmonids who were previously about to splat Omega now doing a 180 and going after him.

“Not this time!” He scowled, cocking his blaster as he began to carve a path back to the center.

It was pure carnage. Power eggs and light blue ink scattered everywhere as both inklings splatted salmon after salmon, their combined efforts allowing them to regroup back at the egg basket to fight back to back.

Yet despite all their hard work, the salmonids kept coming. Two goldies popped up to replace each one they splatted, and they were quickly getting overwhelmed by their tough, bright, golden scales, those hollow white eyes showing no signs of letting up. There were already plenty of golden eggs near the basket, but none had been put inside due to how busy the inklings were with surviving.

The glowflies moved towards Omega, and she once again sighed in frustration as she activated her special one last time, flying up and away from the swarm with the inkjet, and splatting them from a safe distance. She had been hoping to save her special for the last wave, but these salmonids had forced her hand.

“Get as many eggs as you can inside the basket!” She yelled down at Double over the roar of the inkjet, sending a blast towards a goldie and causing it to explode into even more golden eggs.

Now that the salmonids were distracted, he grabbed as many eggs as he could carry and dumped them all inside the basket, repeating the action as the salmonids chased after Omega. He frantically looked for the closest eggs to grab, and tossed them inside without a second glance as Omega dealt with the massive swarm of restless salmon. 

She was gracefully ruthless. Expertly maneuvering the inkjet allowed the stream that propelled her upwards to splat the salmonids directly below her, and that combined with her deadly accurate shots made for a killer combination. She used the environment to her advantage, pushing herself off the walls to propel herself forward and over gathering salmonids, splatting them in the process. Even the chums that tried to jump after her were swiftly met with a blast of ink to the face. Double couldn’t help but pause for a moment to stare, completely awestruck.

“Double, what are you doing? We’re not done yet!”

“You know, you look, like, gorgeous. In a badass kind of way.” He fumbled over his words, struggling to find the right ones. “Your tentacles are all cool and glowing, and you’re so high up in the air, surrounded by all these lights-”

“Not the time!” Omega snapped over the sounds of salmonids being splatted. “Hurry up and put one more egg in!”

He snapped out of his daze and picked up an egg a recently splatted goldie dropped. Unfortunately, just as Double was about to put in the last egg they needed, the glowflies decided they wanted to buzz around a different person, and headed back to him. On cue, all the salmonids turned to look at him with their crazed looks.

“Ah shit-”

He dropped the egg and booked it to the nearest wall, inking himself a path upwards before swimming up it. It seemed like a good idea, until he bonked his head against a metal pipe near the top.

“Ow, fuck!”

Double briefly popped out of the ink to grab the ledge with his hand, and hefted himself up past the pipe onto the top of the wall, a feat that could only be done by someone with lots of upper body strength, adrenaline rushing through their veins, and a horde of feral fish chasing after them. He couldn’t rest though, as the salmonids were adamant on reaching him, to the point they were beginning to pile up against each other and jump at him, snapping their jaws in warning. At this point, Omega had returned back to the ground and was shooting the salmonids piling against the wall Double was on, trying to cull their numbers enough that they wouldn’t reach the top.

“Megs, go get the fucking egg, I’ll be fine!” Double ran along the top of the thin borders, somehow managing to both shoot and avoid the salmons while keeping his balance.

Omega nodded and grabbed the egg he had dropped earlier, quickly tossing it into the basket before heading back to Double to help him deal with the large number of salmonids. They continued to shoot and splat seemingly endless amounts of chums and goldies until the glowflies finally dispersed, the salmonids chasing after them as they headed back to sea.

“You can come down now.” Omega sighed in both exhaustion and relief, staring up at the inkling still standing on top of the wall.

Double super jumped back down to her, stumbling a bit and grabbing onto her shoulder for support as he shifted back to his humanoid form, head spinning from the ordeal of the last wave.

“You alright?”

“No.” He groaned. “Buuuuuut maybe a kiss will make me feel better?” He waggled his eyebrows a bit as Omega rolled her eyes, lightly shoving his hand off her shoulder. Of course he still had time to flirt right after getting chased by a horde of fish.

“I’ll think about it after you get a shower.”

“Save the showers for later,” Mr. Grizz spoke up once again. “you’ve still got one more wave to get through before I can let you guys off, and from the looks of it, this one will be quite the hassle.”

The two inklings raised a brow at that statement, and looked at their surroundings, something in the sky catching their attention. Lo and behold, a large cubic shaped ship hovered in the air a distance away from them, some sort of long and giant vacuum attached to the bottom of it. On top and inside of the ship, rows upon rows of large white containers were held in storage, ready to be deployed at any time.

“Woah, the shell is that?”

“A mothership.” Omega murmured, eyebrows furrowing in slight concern. “They aren’t usually a problem for me, but with only two of us and the fact I don't have my specials anymore...”

The horn blared one final time, and salmonids wearing propeller helmets began to disperse around the ship, grabbing the white boxes on top before heading down towards the ground. Omega sped towards the first few chinooks to go within firing range, shooting the flying salmonids to retrieve the golden eggs they held. She made sure to destroy the boxes they brought along with them as well, and turned around after grabbing one to check if her companion was doing the same. Double indeed was splatting the chinooks and grabbing their golden eggs, but seemed to be ignoring the boxes they dropped.

“Make sure you destroy the white boxes too!”

“What? Why?” Double look towards her for an answer, distracting him from the fact the faint blue glow of the box in front of him had turned red. A cohock suddenly jumped out of it, breaking the box and glaring down at the inkling. It raised its large frying pan, and that was enough to snap Double out of his dumbfounded state and blast the cohock until it was splatted.

“How the fuck did it even fit in that?!”

“It’s better if you don’t question it.”

Omega scooped up a few more eggs to place into the net, and as she did the mothership began to make a loud whirring noise.

“The mothership is approaching! They’re gonna try and take the eggs!” Mr Grizz said with what could be assumed was worry.

The long vacuum dangling from the ship’s bottom seemed to come to life as the hovering object began its approach towards the egg basket, the vacuum moving itself forward to clamp onto the top of the basket before the suction started up, the whirring noise so loud you could barely hear yourself talk.

“Arghhh, don’t let it steal my eggs!”

“If anyone’s stealing eggs, it’s probably us.” Double commented, but followed Mr. Grizz’s orders and began to shoot.

They both shot at the large vacuum, the ship slowly getting covered in light blue ink until it eventually released itself from the basket and retreated back into the sky, far enough that their weapons could no longer reach it, but still in the outpost’s vicinity. Despite their best efforts to keep the ship away, it had still managed to grab two or three eggs, setting them back from reaching their quota.

“Codammit…” Double scowled up at the ship. “What the shell are we supposed to do about that thing?”

“We can worry about it later, right now we need to focus on the boxes.”

Omega tugged on his arm and they both swam out of the walled up center area towards the grates, where multiple chums and cohocks had already broken out of their confinements.

“You still have your special, right?”

“Yeah, didn’t use any of em.”

“Good.” She pointed towards the salmonids headed towards them. “You distract them while I get more eggs, just don’t die and we should be fine.”

“No need to tell me twice.” He grinned, sprinting towards the center and blasting as many of them as possible. As expected of any living creature, they weren’t too happy about getting shot, and so they chased after Double, Omega using the opportunity to snipe the chinooks out of the air to collect the eggs they needed.

Double kept running circles around the salmonids, splatting one after another until he eventually ran out of ink. As the cohocks and chums surrounded him however, his grin didn’t falter. His spiked tentacles glowed a bright blue, and a split second later he was high up in the air, fist raised right before bringing it back down. A large explosion of ink followed, the splashdown easily splatting the salmonids that had previously gathered around him.

“Haha, take that!” Double cackled as he retreated back to the center, where Omega was placing more golden eggs inside the basket while fending off some stray salmonids.

“Are we clear?” He asked, splatting an unfortunate chinook that had gotten a bit too close to the basket.

“Not yet—duck.”

Omega fired a shot that just barely missed Double’s head, the concentrated ink grazing his tentacles before splatting a cohock that had crept up behind him.

“Sorry. I was going to say the mothership will be back anytime now. If we aren’t careful it might end up leaving with too many eggs.”

Double looked towards the mothership as it began to create loud whirring sounds once more, and sure enough it began to move forward and start its descent towards the egg basket.

“So all the golden eggs are on top of it, right? Where the white boxes are?”

“They aren’t in the boxes themselves, rather the chinooks that carry them to the ground usually hold a golden egg each. Why do you ask?”

“I have an idea.”

With no further explanation, he inked the nearest wall, dropped his weapon, and swam up the light blue trail, jumping out of it just before he smacked his head against the metal pipe to grab onto the ledge.

“Double, what are you doing? Get back down!”

“Relax Megs, I’ll be fine! Cover for me!” Double yelled, pushing his foot against the wall to heft the rest of his body up on top of it.

He managed to clamber up the wall, though not as easily as he had done before. He even nearly rolled too far and fell off the other side of it, but managed to regain his balance. Double got to his feet as the mothership clamped onto the basket, its long vacuum beginning to suck the golden eggs up. He took a deep breath, then leapt towards the ship.

His hands just barely managed to grab the edge of the top, the rubber gloves he wore not helping him keep his grip as he flailed his legs around wildly in midair until he eventually clawed his way to the top of the ship. Double landed on top of the white crates, the chinooks flying all around him seemingly ignoring his presence as they focused on grabbing more boxes to bring back down. He pushed himself up and wobbled slightly at the instability of being on a moving ship, yet a grin still managed to spread across his face.

“You want your golden eggs ya stupid bear?” He cracked his knuckles, tentacles glowing a bright blue as he jumped up high, first raised. “Well here they are!”

He splashdowned directly onto the crates, rocking the mothership a bit from the sheer force and destroying most of the white boxes, splatting multiple chinooks in the process. The remains after the ink had cleared were the power eggs of possibly hundreds of salmonids, and a handful of golden eggs. The force of the splashdown wasn’t enough for the mothership to retract it’s vacuum and fly away, but it did enough damage. Double leapt off the ship with large amounts of golden eggs in his hands as Omega gave him a look that somehow managed to convey she was both impressed and perplexed.

She chose to save whatever comments she had for later, quickly firing a few shots at the mothership for it to finally retract itself from the basket and fly away, this time towards the night sky and out of sight. The remaining salmonids took that as their cue to go back into the water as well, leaving behind dark green ink trails as they disappeared under the murky sea water. Double dumped all the eggs he had into the now vacant egg basket, and it retracted back into the metal hatch as a celebratory jingle played.

“Great job, kids. That was the last of em. Head back to the boat and you’ll be on your way back home.”

xxx

“Well, I gotta hand it to you and your “more than friend” here—you blew my expectations outta the water. Here’s your paycheck.”

A gloved hand, one that was much bigger than that of a regular inkling’s, slid a few drink tickets over to the other side of the booth, where Double and Omega eagerly received their payment. It slid two Grizzco worker hats over as well, and Double put one on immediately, chuckling when it fit perfectly.

“And my bonus?” Omega peered into the booth, though she was only greeted with darkness.

“I didn’t forget, here ya go.” A plain cd case simply labeled Ω-3 with a black marker was slid out.

“Now go scram, I’ll see you on your next shifts.” He pulled the metal shutter back over the booth, leaving the two all alone again in the darkness of the Square.

“...Kids these days, can’t tell what they’re thinking. Only two people in a work crew? They’re lucky I gave them my good weapons….”

“So, what’s in the cd?” Double peered down from behind Omega as they walked away from the booth, the taller inkling twirling around the other hat he wasn’t wearing with his finger.

“Some unused tracks the salmonids don’t play during salmon run.” She flipped the case over in her hands, running her fingers over the smooth plastic.

“I like their battle music the most, but it’s interesting to hear what they play outside of it, for practice and entertainment.”

“So those songs are like, demos? How’d that guy get recordings of them then?”

“I’m not sure, and if I think I asked he’d stop giving them to me, so leave it to your imagination.”

“Hmph. Anyway….guess who got the most golden eggs?” He smirked as he jogged in front of her to jerk a thumb towards himself, mouthing the word ‘me’ as she rolled her eyes.

“Only because I was too busy making sure you didn’t die.”

“No idea what you’re talking about. If anything, I totally saved our asses with that splashdown at the end.” He grinned slyly.

“I think that deserves a peck on the lips, at least. Maybe more?”

“You still smell like sewage, so pass.”

“Spare a kiss for a poor soul? Pretty please? Even a cheek peck will do?” He stopped walking and leaned down to face her, still with a stupid grin on his face.

Omega thought about it for a second before leaning to the left to reach the side of his face, pressing a small kiss to his cheek and making his ears twitch in delight.

“Happy?”

“Never better.”

The sky was still dark, but it was slowly yet surely turning into a lighter shade of blue, the sun on its way to rise and shine on Inkopolis once more. They headed back to their home as the beginnings of a rising sun peeked over the horizon, hands intertwined.


End file.
